If you guys haven’t met Sophie Hudson (aka BooMama) allow me to make a grand introduction!  I first “met” Sophie when she hooked me with her book A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet: Southern Stories of Faith, Family and Fifteen Pounds of Bacon.  It’s only in the last few years (after living away from the South) that I’ve truly come to appreciate all things Southern.  My heart longs for the towering pines, sweet magnolias, biscuits and gravy, oodles of ‘y’alls’, ‘my stars’, and ‘heaven’s sakes,’ and the architecture…..ohhhhhh the architecture!  So naturally, I have flocked to almost anything able to transport me back to my roots.

Sophie’s latest book, Giddy Up Eunice: Because Women Need Each Other  releases TODAY.  A few months ago, Sophie did an all call for a pre-release launch team and needless to say, I applied immediately! And I was accepted!  So I’ve had my hands on a pre-release copy and have already gobbled it up!

This is the time of year many of you are looking for a few good summer reads.  For me personally, I’m taking the summer off from leadership books.  I’m diving into lighter reads full of humor and also throwing in a few biographical texts.  Giddy Up Eunice is a PERFECT lighter read that is full of humorous anecdotes of southern musings centered around our most precious relationships.

What I love SO MUCH about this book is the way Sophie parallels her (our) current relationships to the stories of Mary and Elizabeth, Ruth and Naomi, and Lois and Eunice (see 2 Timothy 1:5).   Sophie does a FANTASTIC job reading between the lines of these relationships and explores the humorous AND nurturing sides of these precious friendships.

For example:

Remember when young Mary traveled over the river and through woods (or rather the 80-100ish miles along the Dead Sea between Nazareth and Judea), to pronounce to her MUCH OLDER, PREGNANT cousin, Elizabeth that she was expecting a baby, is un-wed, and oh yeah, the babe will JUST happen to be the Savior of the world?!?! #Awkward…and Sophie goes there.

Have you ever stopped to ponder what Ruth thought when Naomi told her to “stay hidden until Boaz goes to sleep and make note of where he lies down” and “after he lies down to uncover his feet and lie down, too” and THEN “wait for him to tell you what to do next?”  #EvenMoreAwkward….and Sophie totally goes there!

And in more seriousness, have you thought about Lois and Eunice PAVING THE WAY for young Timothy with a legacy of RICH faith? (This is the premise for the entire book.)

Giddy Up Eunice is a BEAUTIFUL reminder of WHY God places women in our paths and divinely inspires these precious relationships.  Sophie encourages us to seek out other women in different stages of life (e.g. younger or older) and either pour into them OR allow their wisdom to pour into us.  We have MUCH to learn from each other and have “far more in common than we realize.” (Sophie)

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from Giddy Up Eunice:

“That is why I can say with everything in me that living your life without any concern for how it affects the people behind you is like jumping on a fast track and traveling at breakneck speed to a very special place called THE LAND OF MISSED OPPORTUNITIES AND ALSO REGRETS.”

“When the Holy Spirit in one woman recognizes and responds to the Holy Spirit in another woman, safe places become sacred places.”

“So here’s the challenge: wherever you have influence with the generation behind you, start investing. Pray that the Lord will help you find folks He’d like to come alongside you.”

Be prepared to laugh AND cry as you read through Giddy Up Eunice.  You will especially relate to this book if you live in south, have a Mamaw and Papaw (I did), spent countless hours playing with your cousins (I did), have a kind taking to vintage farm sinks (I do), and treasure precious relationships with other women (I do).

Here are links (click the pictures) directly to Amazon where you can purchase Sophie’s books (affiliate links). Once you read, come back here and let me know your thoughts.  I promise you won’t be disappointed. 🙂